


oh, you're all that i can see

by atlantisairlock



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Bisexuality, Explosions, F/F, First Kiss, Near Death Experiences, Universe Alteration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2016-02-17
Packaged: 2018-05-21 06:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6041707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlantisairlock/pseuds/atlantisairlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing you notice, when you finally reach the planet called Earth, isn't the sun, isn't the scenery, isn't even the people - it's the auras.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh, you're all that i can see

**Author's Note:**

> read a horror story involving the whole red-green halo-aura concept on reddit somewhere and was inspired to write this fic; can't seem to find it but if anyone knows what i'm talking about please link it here in the comments so i can give credit where it's due!
> 
> title from 'take heart' by the sam willows.

The first thing you notice, when you finally reach the planet called Earth, isn't the sun, isn't the scenery, isn't even the people - it's the auras, shimmering pale and pastel around every single inhabitant you can see. They aren't particularly vivid, but they're not indiscernible either, and they seem to come in only two shades - some are darker, some are lighter, but they're all either red or green hues. 

You assume, at first, as with most other things you come into contact with for the first time, that everyone can see them. That they're  _normal._ It isn't till you bring the colours up to Alex that she frowns at you quizzically and asks you what you're talking about. 

When you tell Eliza, the dark green soft around her curves, she gasps, then all but sinks into a chair, unable to look at you for a long while, before she finally meets your eyes. She trembles. "Kara, before I answer your question - what colour - what colour is Alex's aura?"

You bite your lip. "It's green."

A sigh that tells of tremendous relief. Your foster mother stands and walks shakily over to you, slides an arm around your shoulders. "Come on, we need to talk."

 

 

It turns out that - being a creature of Kryptonian descent - you have some power that transcends understanding, the power to know when somebody is going to die. It manifests itself in the form of auras, easy enough to comprehend. Green for life, red for death. The darker the red, the more imminent the death. Those who are sickly have a more muted green aura, the auras are less visible when people are asleep, and the dead have no aura - not one which you can perceive, anyway. It's a little like being able to predict the future, which makes you uncomfortable, until Jeremiah tells you that it's possible for an aura to change its shade depending on the actions someone takes. 

"Clark has it too, so we've tried to study it best as we can. I suppose the best way to describe it would be... well, it's a bit like the weather forecast. A prediction, not a prophecy." He explains. "At any given moment in time, there are many paths that a person can take, different decisions they can make, that could drastically change their future. The aura, as far as I can tell, manifests itself based on the decision that someone is most likely to make, on what is most likely to occur. But we make our own fate, Kara. It is possible for an aura to go from red to green or vice versa in a split second." 

He goes on to enumerate about more complicated theories regarding time, but all you hear is -

you can still save people, no matter what. 

 

 

You are Supergirl even before Cat Grant makes you hers, moulds you into a figure of her own creation, and you devote your life to stealing people away from the unforgiving clutches of death. As Supergirl, you lock onto ordinary people on the street who have auras too red for your liking, keep tabs on them, change their destinies before they die. 

There is nothing in the world, nothing in the universe, perhaps, like seeing a blood-red aura fade into warm, reassuring green. 

But you are still - not human, but fallible. You aren't perfect, though you try. Three months after you don your cape, you're exhausted and the sun hasn't been out in full force for days and you slip up, just once, but it's enough. There's a young girl with the palest red aura you've ever seen, so small, so innocent, and you're too late to stop her stepfather pushing her down two flights of stairs. 

Clark finds you in your room, sobbing, shoulders shaking, on the verge of screams. He tugs you into an embrace, murmurs indistinguishable words in your ear until you're calm once more, though the tears still streak your face. When you look into his eyes, they aren't the ones you remember - they are wiser, darker, and they have seen so much. You remember your cousin as a baby, you remember protecting him and playing with him and watching over him, but he understands this world more than you do, and he has worn that symbol on his chest far longer than you have.

"Kara." He says, soft and sad. "We chose this, and we should  _always,_ always try our best, but the truth is that we can't save everyone." He swallows, hard. "We can't save everyone."

And  _oh,_ you're still young, all that time having been frozen in the Phantom Zone, but you're not so naive that you thought you would never see anyone slip through the cracks. But knowing, rationally, and seeing it happen in front of your eyes - they are two very, very different things. 

But then you know that Clark knows this too. Surely he's felt this same way, and he's managed to keep living, keep moving, keep trying to save people though he can't save them all.

So you lift your chin, and keep wearing your suit under your day clothes.

 

 

The first time you fall in love, he's a handsome young man who works at the cafe a block down from college. He asks you out on a date, you accept, and you go out for a slew of dates that make your head spin. Alex teases you relentlessly and Eliza wipes tears from her eyes, telling Jeremiah how you've grown up so much. 

On your half-year anniversary, he greets you at the cafe where you first met with a blinding grin and a sickly red aura scintillating against his skin. 

You turn and run, run three miles before you fall to your knees and push your fist into your mouth to keep from screaming, from crying. 

He finds you, later, leaning against the wall and shattered from the onslaught of tears. He puts his jacket around you and strokes your hair, and his fingers are tinged with crimson that just doesn't go away.

A week later he breaks up with you. His brother comes to your house and tells you, quietly, that he's been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukaemia.

"Kara, he didn't want to leave you." His brother says, pleading. "But he wants to make it easier for you to say goodbye when he's gone."

You don't see him again until the funeral, and you decide then and there that you'll never put yourself through this pain ever again. Falling in love with humans, so vulnerable and breakable and mortal, these people you've dedicated your life to saving - it can only end badly.

You promise yourself, and Kara Danvers keeps her promises.

 

 

It's easy enough to keep that promise, and it works out well, mostly because you don't meet anybody after that who makes you feel like the world is so much brighter when they smile. 

And then Cat Grant walks into your life.

Cat makes an icon out of you, defends you where nobody else will, and cares about Supergirl, and about Kara, too. 

Admittedly, there aren't many people in your life who care about both parts of you - and when your secret comes out, when she makes you remove your glasses in front of her, when her eyes light up in recognition - 

she's the first person who really  _understands_ both aspects of who you are. The human side of you, born from Thanksgiving dinners with the Danvers and your heady university days, and the Kryptonian side of you, the loss you've endured and the legacy you carry in your blood, in your bones.

People call her the Ice Queen, but you learn, slowly, that those people don't know  _anything,_ don't know who Cat really  _is,_ under all the posturing, under her carefully constructed facade. 

The day it dawns upon you that the sun seems more radiant when she holds your gaze, you know you're a goner.

 

 

Alex knows, maybe even before you do yourself. She sits with you on the roof sipping apple cider and stares at you like she can see through you. "You're in love with someone."

You try to deny it, in part because you aren't even sure about that yourself, but she's your sister and has watched you grow up and possibly knows you better than anyone in the world. "It's Cat, isn't it?"

You freeze. This time, the denial doesn't even have time to come to your lips before your heart races and you let yourself think about it. The silence drags out, and then Alex nods in understanding. "You love her." It's not a question, more a statement of absolute fact. 

And the thing is -

you do. 

 

 

You would do anything to protect the innocent, but here's what you're discovering - you'd do anything to protect Cat, especially.

So when you walk into CatCo on what seems to be a perfectly ordinary morning and you're assaulted by a  _sea_ of blinding flame, when every single person bustling around in the lobby has an aura that spells disaster, when Winn raises a hand in greeting at you and he's surrounded by scarlet - 

when you sprint into Cat's office and it's so  _bright_ it looks like she's  _bleeding -_

"Cat!" You gasp, mind whirling for the briefest moment before you recover yourself. "Miss Grant, you need to evacuate everybody out of the building, right now."

Cat stops in her tracks, stares at you like you've grown a second head. "Kara, what do you mean?"

She knows, of course, about the full extent of your powers. And you're not stupid - everyone in the building having a red aura can't possibly be a coincidence. Something is going to happen within CatCo, and soon. "Miss Grant, it's - the auras. Everyone's aura is red.  _Everyone's._ Everybody in the building has a red aura and it's  _vivid._ You have to evacuate everybody  _now_ or they're going to die!"

You can't save everyone. 

But here and now, you can save these people, or you can die trying. 

Cat's eyes flare, and she regards you for a second. For one horrible moment you think she's going to write you off, and you dart into her personal space, grabbing her wrist. "Cat! Please! Trust me. Get them out of here.  _Please."_

The next moment she's back at her desk, making a flurry of calls so fast she could very well have supersonic speed too. You don't know who she calls, or what she says, but five minutes later everybody is leaving the building in an orderly fashion, congregating at various different locations far from CatCo. You watch as every step takes them further away, and there's a pebble in your throat as you see the red slowly, slowly fading to be replaced by green. 

You and Cat are the last to leave the building, hurrying out of the double doors. She walks at top speed and you follow, because the red isn't fading from her aura yet. 

"I have to go and check on Carter." She says, sounding furious and determined and just a little scared. "Kara, stay here. Stay with them. Keep them safe. They need you." 

She's heading towards her car, she's moving fast, she's getting further away from CatCo but her aura is turning redder and redder and her hand is on the handle of the driver's side door - 

you don't think. You don't stop to consider your actions. You just know you're by her side and you scoop her into your arms and take into the sky. It doesn't matter that you're  _Kara_ now, that you're still in your glasses and your ponytail and your drab outfit, that this could be the end of your career as a superhero as you know it, exposing your true identity to all and sundry who're watching, but you can't watch Cat die in front of your eyes. 

You can't. 

You can't save everyone.

But you can save her. 

The bomb goes off less than five seconds later, and you're safely in the air but you can still feel the shockwaves reverberating. Cat's mouth drops open as she stares down from this height at the wreck that was her car but moments ago. People are screaming, but thankfully it seems from a glance that nobody was close enough to the car to be seriously hurt or killed. 

There aren't any red auras below you, and when you turn to gaze at Cat in your arms, your heart swells three sizes as you realise her aura is  _green._

"Oh." Cat says faintly, and that's when you notice, past the wash of adrenaline thrumming through your veins, that she's clinging on to you so tight it's a little uncomfortable. "I could have - I could have  _died."_

She says it in such a hushed tone, so taken aback, that you feel a surge of unadulterated horror and it nearly brings you to your knees. You land on a nearby rooftop and put her back on her feet, shaking. Cat's right. She could have died. She could have died right in front of you. 

You don't realise you're crying until you feel Cat's hand on your arm, grounding you. 

"Kara." She says your name, awed and full of emotion. 

"I'm sorry." You choke out. "I just - oh Rao - you nearly - you almost - "

Cat's hand drops to her side, then she brings it up to your face, fingertips brushing lightly against your cheek. "But I didn't." 

 _But you could have,_ you think, and try to imagine a life without Cat Grant in it, try to imagine attending her funeral the way you did your first boyfriend's, try to imagine her  _gone._

"I can't loseyou." You whisper. "I can't."

She stares at you with an unreadable expression, softer than you've ever seen her, and then she slides her fingers into your hair and pulls you in, slants her mouth against yours. It's a warm kiss, fierce, almost desperate, and you don't hesitate to grab her waist and kiss her back. 

You swore you'd keep your promise, but this is Cat, and she means more to you than you can possibly say. You've got your arms around her now, and you don't ever want to let go.

"I love you." She says, breathes it against your lips, and you close your eyes, revel in it, before you smile and exhale, slow and quiet. "I love you too." 

 

 

After, a bomb disposal squad comes in and clears the CatCo basement carpark of the ten cars packed to the brim with explosives. It's a near miss, and Alex still has to come in and clean up the rest of the mess. 

All you care about is that everyone - and  _Cat_ \- is safe. Their auras are so, so green, and Cat lets you relax into her, lets you breathe with your fingers twined with hers. 

There will always be people with red auras, you think, there will always be people to save, and you know that one day, one day, Cat's aura will turn red and there will be absolutely nothing you can do about it.

But for now she's here, she's by your side, viridescent shimmer against her skin and all, and everything else, you can deal with much, much later. 

You can't save everyone.

But today, you saved them, and you saved her. 

"My Supergirl." Cat says, sotto voce, her forehead touched against yours, warm, present, alive. "My Kara." 

And that will have to be enough. 


End file.
